By Orenstein, Beth W
In early September, Paulette Nish, clinical director of women’s and children’s services, looked at the neonatal intensive care unit at Community Medical Center (CMC) in Scranton and said,”Today, I have 10 babies.”
None of the neonates were born at CMC.The hospital dosed its labor and delivery department in August.All the babies in CMC’s neonatal intensive care are transfers.
Nish does not expect the situation to change. CMC will continue to operate a Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, but it will rely strictly on transfers for its tiny patients.
About the same time, Mercy Hospital in Scranton closed its obstetrical services as well.
Moses Taylor Hospital (MTH), a third hospital in Scranton, is the only one in Lackawanna County to offer obstetrical services.
Nish said CMC dosed its maternity floor because it did not have enough obstetricians to deliver babies.
“We had a group of five plus we had a few independent practitioners,” she said.”One by one, they left, and if you don’t have enough physicians, you have to depend on physicians who will come to work in an area, and from a patient satisfaction perspective, that isn’t good.The patient might see five different doctors five appointments in a row. That’s not a quality way to run a service, Nish said.
CMC has a protocol in place should a woman arrive at the emergency room and be ready to deliver imminently. However, the mother and baby would be transferred to Moses Taylor for post- delivery care.
MTH has 26 private mom/baby and 11 private labor/birth suites. In 2005, it spent about $10 million to upgrade its birthing suites and family and clinical space.
MTH offers two obstetricians and a neonatologist in-hospital 24/ 7, and is adding perinatology services. Moses Taylor also has a Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with 15 beds.
CMC’s decision to dose its maternity unit comes as it and MTH have sought to form an operational and financial alliance.
The hospitals applied to the state for approval for their collaborative agreement about a year ago and still are awaiting a decision.
“We’re waiting for the regulatory approvals, said Karen Murphy, vice president of planning for MTH. “We have not proceeded on anything except what is required for the regulatory approvals.”
Nish was not sure how long it would take for the agreement to be completed. “We thought the whole process would be completed by the end of the summer, maybe the beginning of September. But right now there is no timeframe that we’re talking about.”
Nish said if the two hospitals forge an affiliation, it would be good for the community. Very often, she said, with neighboring hospitals, some services are offered at one and some services are offered at the other.
“Many facilities are run that way,” she said. “Other facilities throughout the United States have done this and have many campuses that have offered different services”
The success, she said, depends on communicating with the public so that patients know where they need to go for what service.
Nish said the arrangement “optimizes care for the patient. If you look at integrating offering all subspecialties in grating one area, it’s a benefit because ….It maximizes what we can offer to the community.”
Murphy agreed.
About 30 people from the labor and delivery staff at CMC are working at Moses Taylor.
“We’re sharing resources a little, Nish said. “We have an arrangement so they’re able to work at that campus. They’re just working at the other site.”
The Family Birthing Suites at Moses Taylor Hospital have been ranked in the top 1 percent of hospitals in the nation with obstetrics services for patient satisfaction, according to Press Ganey surveys.
Statewide, 33 obstetrics units have closed since 1997; in 20 just the OB closed, in 13 it was the entire hospital that closed.
Every year, more than 145,000 babies are born in hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to Hospital Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) About 2,500 to 3,000 babies had been born annually at the three hospitals in Scranton.
Moses Taylor now expects roughly 2,900 births a year at its Family Birthing Suites. Last year, it delivered 2,000 babies.
Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale reports its maternity unit anticipates a surge in deliveries due to Scranton’s obstetric shuffle.”The local Ob/Gyn group added another nurse midwife this summer, bringing-their total of nurse mid-wives to three, in addition to three obstetricians,” says Heather Holmes,Wayne Memorial’s New Beginnings Unit (maternity unit) coordinator. On our maternity unit, we hired a new head nurse who has extensive experience with neonatal care. We also have state of the art monitoring equipment, which allows our nurses to spend more time with mothers and less time on paperwork. We consistently score high on patient satisfaction surveys. In short, when the surge hits, we’ll be ready,” she said.
The New Beginnings unit has 14 beds at present and births between 400 and 500 babies a year “We record extremely good outcomes in the wake of what’s happening in Scranton; Holmes said.
HAP’s recent report said that the birth rate has remained stable but that the percentage of low birth weight (2500 grams or less) babies needing more specialized care has been increasing.
Copyright Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal Oct 2007
(c) 2007 Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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